Shock
by ayamari no Goshi
Summary: Where was he? What happened? He must have gone into shock after the portal had zapped him. Yeah, that was it, shock... Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

Shock

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom!

_Writer's note: I honestly never expected to write a fic for this show. But, for whatever reason, after watching Phantom Planet the other day and listening to the Stone Sour song, "Say You'll Haunt Me," repeatedly, I started reading some other fics… and the desire came into my head._

_Maybe it's because I don't feel like the show satisfactory showed the beginning, or maybe it's because I know what being in shock feels like (and I wouldn't wish it on anyone!) that I wrote this. I don't know. But I hope it's enjoyable, at the least, satisfactory. So please read and enjoy._

* * *

_Shock (n): the physiological effect produced by the passage of an electric current through the body._

…

The feeling of being gently shaken brought him back into consciousness. He was disoriented and exhausted, and the strange noises he was hearing didn't help. Wait… it wasn't just noise; people where calling to him, telling him to get up.

He blinked a couple times as he began to stir. Where was he? What happened?

He thought for a moment. He had been to school earlier… And afterwards…? Oh, yeah. He had decided to bring his friends to his house to show them his parents' new invention, the ghost portal. His parents had mentioned earlier that it didn't work, even after working on it for so long, but that didn't stop him and his friends from being curious. There was some conversation, and somebody… that's right, it was Sam, had convinced him to examine it. Inside, he touched something and…

He sat bolt upright and gripped himself protectively as he remembered the pain. The machine had come alive and it must have shocked him! No, it was more than that. He had been electrocuted!

He shook his head. People don't survive something like that! But, as he quickly examined himself, everything seemed fine. However, he did notice that something was off about the color of the suit he was wearing. Maybe that was just a result of being shocked… But if that was the extent of the damage, he could live with that. He had gotten lucky!

He sighed in relief (although, it somehow just didn't feel right), and glanced at the offending machine. Instead of just being a useless piece of metal, it was now alive and contained an almost-solid-looking, eerie, green mist that was casting a strange light on the room. Oh great, now it was working. At least his parents would be happy.

"Danny…?" a female's voice nervously called out to him. The voice drew his attention to two people who were kneeling on the floor beside him. He had forgotten that Sam and Tucker were still there. They looked both scared and concerned. That worried him. Were they alright?

"Are… you okay…?" Sam asked as she hesitantly reached out to him. Why was she so scared to touch him? It wasn't like he was going to bite her or anything.

He ran his hand through his hair as he answered. "I-I think so…" He hoped that his voice sounded reassuring. He then thought for a moment. "But I am kinda cold…" he added as he noticed the chill for the first time. How did he miss that? It had somehow managed to seep into his very core. "Did the power go out or something…?"

His friends exchanged a glance before they looked at him again. He didn't like their expressions. They were still scared, but there was disbelief in both their eyes as well. That irritated him. "Look!" he told them angrily as he jumped up. "Look! I'm fine! What's wrong with you?"

It took a moment before either of them responded. "Dude… ah… I think you need to look in a mirror…" Tucker told him hesitantly.

"Huh?" What the heck? What did that have to do with anything? Did his face get burnt? Well, whatever it was, it couldn't be good. He gave his friends a strange look, which caused them to shrink back slightly, before he moved in front of a blank computer screen. It wasn't a mirror, but it would work since there weren't any in the lab.

A stranger with glowing green eyes and pure white hair was staring back at him in the reflection. He stumbled backwards in alarm. Who was that? Had they broken in? He quickly looked around, but other than his friends, there was no one else in the room. Maybe he had just been seeing things again.

To double check, he glanced back at the screen. Again, the stranger was looking back at him, but this time, he noticed something else. This stranger looked somewhat familiar. "It can't be…!" he gasped as a realization hit him. Could it…?

He reached up and touched his face. The stranger did the same. The he reached towards the screen; so did the stranger.

Panic hit him as he stumbled away from the machine. He looked down at himself. The hazmat suit he had been wearing was now black with white, instead of the reverse, which it had originally been. No wonder why it had looked different. There was also a faint white glow emanating from his body. What did that mean? He grabbed at his hair; it really was white!

He glanced over at his friends, who were still looking worried. "Wh-what happen to me…?" he asked them uncertainly.

"The portal just came alive while you were in it!" Tucker exclaimed while waving his arms around. "It must have hurt 'cause you were screaming… but… when you stumbled out and fell, we thought you were dead!"

"D-dead…?" His voice sounded unusually hollow as he repeated the dreaded word.

Tucker nodded. "Dude! You weren't breathing!"

He clutched his hand to his chest, almost unconsciously. He hadn't been breathing? But he was fine…

He felt his eyes widen as he noticed something that something wasn't quite right. There was no movement. He knew that he was somewhat panicky at the moment, so why wasn't there the frantic rise and fall of his chest to go along with it? Scared, he moved his hand to his heart. At first, he felt nothing, but after a moment, he noticed a slow faint beating. It was nowhere near strong enough to be called a heartbeat.

Was Tucker right? Was he really….? No… that couldn't be right. He wouldn't be standing there talking to him if he was... Unless… He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Why, of all times, was he thinking about his parents' crazy theories?

"Danny…?" Sam asked, again, uncertainly. He jumped back in alarm. When did she get so close to him?

"I'm so sorry!" she whispered as she reached out to him. It sounded like she was close to tears. "This is all my fault!" She hesitantly reached out and touched his arm. It almost felt like she was confirming that he was still really there.

He noticed that her hand was really warm. It was almost uncomfortable, but that didn't matter. It sounded like she was close to tears, and more than anything else, that unnerved him. He had to calm her down, for both their sakes. "No, it's not. I could have said no…" While he spoke, he had moved his free hand to touch hers to help comfort her, but it never made contact. His hand went straight through hers!

"Wh-what…?" he stammered as he stumbled away from her in shock. Unsure what happened, he stared at his hand as it began to fade from sight. What was going on? Was this some sort of side effect? Was it going to spread? Was he going to disappear?

Scared, he reached out towards his friends. "Please…!" he whispered, in hopes that they could do something, anything to help. They just backed away from him in fear. More than anything, that was perhaps the most frightening thing.

But before he or they could speak again, a voice boomed down from the upstairs. "WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE!" It was his father's voice, and he sounded angry.

"Danny?" another voice called out, his mother's, as footsteps sounded on the stairs. His parents were coming.

No. No! Why now? He had no idea what was happening, let alone how to explain it. There was no time to hide, and the only exit was the stairs. What was he going to do? He couldn't let them see him!

He glanced around frantically for something that could help him out of his situation. There was nothing, and his parents were almost at the bottom of the steps. Mere seconds stood between him and their arrival. In a pitiful last ditch effort, he threw up his arms and closed his eyes in hopes that maybe they could shield him from them.

"Alright young man, you know you're not allowed to bring unauthorized personal down here!" his dad boomed from nearby moments after a strange flash pierced his eyelids.

He jumped. "S-sorry!" he stammered as he opened his eyes, hoping that his dad hadn't gotten a good chance to look at him yet. He was going to risk looking at him, when something caught his attention. Both of his hands were in front of him, and there was no trace of the hazmat suit. Where did it go? And how'd he get back into his street clothes? Had he just imagined everything? "Huh…?"

"Sweetie…? Are you alright?" his mom asked as she moved closer to him, causing him to back away. "Why are you so nervous? Did something happen…?"

What could he say? Did anything actually happen? "Th-the portal…" he stammered as he shook his head.

"Huh? What about it?" His mother looked so worried. It was weird to see her motherly side come out so easily.

"GREAT GOBS OF GHOST GOO!" his dad shouted suddenly, startling everyone. Everyone turned to see him excitedly pointing at something. "It's working! Maddie! The Ghost Portal's working! I knew it would! Look!"

"It must have suddenly turned on…" His mother then turned to him and his friends. "No wonder why you're frightened. Just go upstairs, and we'll talk later. Just try to calm down for now." She then turned and joined her husband in his euphoria about the working portal.

He carefully glanced at his friends, who nodded. The three quickly climbed the stairs and headed for his room.

As they moved, he again placed his hand on his chest. His heart was racing, and his breathing was fast and labored. He took that as a good sign. Everything was working properly.

He had probably gone into shock after the portal had zapped him. Yeah, that was it, shock.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_Shock (n): a collapse of circulatory function caused by severe injury, blood loss, or disease, and characterized by pallor, sweating, weak pulse, and very low blood pressure._

….

By the next morning, he had completely convinced himself that the weirdness of the previous day had just been brought on by a state of shock. He had even looked the condition up, right after his parents had shooed him out of the lab and his friends had left (they'd had a little too much excitement for one day).

Shock explained why he fainted, why he felt cold, why his heartbeat seemed so weak, and why it didn't feel like he was breathing. It just didn't explain why he had looked different or why his hand disappeared… But, after examining himself in the mirror and finding nothing abnormal, he just assumed those symptoms were because of a hallucination from a lack of oxygen or something. Besides, nothing else strange happened for the rest of the night.

Tucker and Sam might need to be convinced of that though, and that worried him. They had seen how different he looked and how he had begun to disappear. They might not accept his answer, but then again, they had probably been in shock too from watching him get zapped. He was going to try to convince them of that at school, but he had to get freshened up first.

There was one thing that was still bothering him though, and that was the chill. Although it wasn't as bad as the previous day, it was still bothersome. He hoped that the hot water would chase it away. Unfortunately, it didn't, but that didn't mean much. It was probably just the beginnings of a cold. And, that just what he needed.

That prompted him to dry off rather quickly. He was just about done when he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes, a glowing green. Hesitantly, he looked in that direction. What he found was a mirror that held his reflection, only with eyes of green instead of blue.

Startled, he stumbled backwards and fell. After landing, he looked up to find himself outside the bathroom, staring at the closed door.

That was strange. He was pretty sure that the door hadn't been open, and he knew that he hadn't grabbed or knocked the door in any way when he fell. It was rather perplexing. Did the answer lie within the strange feeling he had gotten while it happened?

He stood up and placed his hand on the door. It was definitely solid. Could he have…? He shook his head and hurried to his room. His parents' ghost hunting craziness was starting to rub off on him.

He definitely needed to get out of the house, but that was easier said than done…

…

The last thing he needed to do before he left was to get his favorite shirt on, but, no matter how many times he tried, it just stubbornly remained on his bed. What the heck was going on? It was just a shirt! It shouldn't be _that_ hard to move, unless his parents had done something to the washing machine again.

Agitated, he glanced down at his hand, half expecting to find some weird residue from his shirt on it, but it wasn't there.

Not again! How did it…? Where did it go? As he began to panic, a feeling of emptiness began to come over him. His other hand was starting to disappear too. He backed up in a desperate attempt to get away from whatever was causing the problem.

His foot seemed to sink into something which caused him to fall again. But, unlike before, this fall seemed to be much longer. Looking around, he found that he was no longer in his room, but on the floor of the kitchen. He glanced up. There was no hole; no indication of how he could have fallen through. There were no words to describe the strangeness of the situation. How'd he fall into the kitchen? And more importantly, how did he not get hurt?

He checked himself. He felt solid, and both of his hands were there; clearly visible. He got up and touched the table; that was solid too. He sighed in relief. Whatever was happening, it definitely was not coming from him.

Maybe his parents had done something to his room. A new defense mechanism against their supposed ghosts…? It was a little more drastic than the average one, but it was possible. They had done stranger things. He would have to ask them later, once they decided to come out of the lab.

Speaking of which… He glanced at the doorway that led to it and frowned. His parents hadn't come out of it since they discovered that the portal was working. They even seemed to forget that he had broken the rules about the lab, which was a relief. After all the strange things that were happening, he doubted that he would be able to stand being grounded at the moment.

The sound of his sister coming down the stairs brought him back to reality. He was going to be late for school. After giving her an excuse that he was just looking for a clean shirt, he hurried back up the stairs.

This time, his shirt cooperated with him, and once it was on, he quickly left the house, praying his sister didn't notice. He didn't need her to ponder about it during the day and start asking questions about that too once he got home.

He had let it slip to her that he had 'accidently' been shocked by the ghost portal the previous night, which had been a huge mistake. It had caused her to go into her 'therapist mode,' which involved her asking annoying questions in hope of determining if he had been psychologically damaged by the incident. He practically caused her to begin analyzing him, to make sure there was no psychological damage from it. He had managed to somehow escape before she had gotten her answer, so he knew she was going to try again. He didn't need to give her any more fuel than she already had.

She believed that she was the only normal one in the family, which in turn made it her duty to look after him to make sure that none of their parents' insanity affected him too much. Her 'sisterly love', as she sometimes called it, was the last thing that he wanted to deal with at the moment. Well, last thing after mysteriously disappearing floors.

…

He barely paid attention to his surroundings as he hurried to class. He had to prove to his friends that everything was perfectly fine with him. The only way that he'd be able to do that would be if he showed up on time, without looking tired or anything. He had to appear to be normal. There was also another reason:

Even though the school year had just started, he had already managed to get on the bad side of his teacher, Mr. Lancer, by being late to class a couple of times, simply because his parents had wanted to show off some of their new inventions. He had already had a detention because of it and was not keen to have another, especially because his parents would chew him out afterwards. Fentons weren't supposed to cause trouble outside of the scientific community.

When he entered the classroom, he was surprised to see that his friends were in a deep discussion. What surprised him even more was the look of absolute disbelief that they gave him when they noticed that he had actually come to school. He just grinned at them as he took his seat.

"Do you really think you should be here?" Sam whispered, while visually examining him. It was like she was looking for that one thing that would prove something had happened.

"Come on! I'm fine! Nothing happened!" he told her as he ran his hand through his hair. He had a feeling that she was going to be indirectly asking him if he was okay for the rest of the day.

"Well, even if you are, shouldn't your parents be… I don't know… decontaminating you or something?" Tucker asked hesitantly. He then grinned mischievously. "I mean, you passed up the perfect excuse to play hooky!"

He regarded that for a moment. That would have been a good excuse, but doing so had actually held the risk of a real decontamination. And that was not the most pleasant experience. He should know.

After some invention blew up a couple years prior, everyone and thing in the house had to be decontaminated, even if they weren't anywhere near the explosion because his father was convinced that the 'ectoplasmic residue' somehow got on everything in the house whether it was alive or not. It was an experience that he did not want to repeat.

He frowned as he thought about it more. "I'm not actually sure if they realize anything actually happened to me yet," he slowly told his friends after a moment, which caused them to give him a strange look. "They've been in the lab since yesterday, and I'm not too sure they're aware of anything else other than that stupid portal right now. Well… that is, unless Jazz flipped out on them… But I don't think that happened yet."

"Why?" Tucker asked.

"I didn't hear the mandatory shrieking." That simple statement actually managed to both of his friends to smile.

It was right about then that Mr. Lancer began to take role. He was actually surprised to realize that he was thankful for it since it meant his friends wouldn't have too many chances, at least during class, to question him further. He knew that they were going to keep pushing until they were positive he was absolutely normal. And, that meant that it was going to be a long day.

* * *

_Writer's note: _

_First, I just wanted to say thank you to those who commented and to those who favorited this. You have no idea how happy you made me (this particular work is more difficult to write than I had originally thought it would be…)_

_Second, I have this as a gradual realization for a couple reasons. Primarily, it's because I know enough about psychology to know that if a (stubborn) person thinks something is wrong with them, they will usually rationalize symptoms and/or push it from their mind until it becomes too big to ignore. It's also because I believe there was a nervous reaction to the accident as well, and that can take time to manifest. And, many times, major nervous events begin in the appendages._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_shock (n): the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally_

_..._

A couple days had passed since the accident, and for the most part, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Well, unless you counted him dropping various items a lot more than usual, unexpectedly falling out of his seat a few times, and how he still felt a bit cold. Nothing that could really be call abnormal.

To him, nothing was wrong. He was just being a bit more klutzy than usual. The 'accident' hadn't done anything to him, and it should just be viewed as another somewhat dangerous occurrence in the life of the son of ghost hunters.

Unfortunately, his friends still didn't view it that way. They were watching him carefully, waiting for him to do something strange. They weren't really all that convinced that everything was as okay as he thought he was.

He guessed that the only way they would be convinced was if everything remained normal for the rest of the week, and possibly the next. The priceless expressions that they would have on their faces when they would eventually realize that he was right would be well worth the wait.

There was one thing that could possibly throw a wrench into his plans and that was his science lab, which he was dreading. Usually, they weren't allowed to work in groups, which made everything go much more slowly, and he wasn't exactly the most coordinated person on a good day, let alone the bad week he was having.

Today, they were supposed to be doing an experiment where they were going to have to collect the product of two materials after mixing and heating them. It wasn't that difficult for the average student, but as long as he didn't break anything, he was pretty sure that he could handle it.

After listening to the teacher explain the pre-lab, he quickly got to work setting up his equipment. He just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. And, he was just about done when a test tube slipped through his fingers. He cringed as he watched, but luckily, it landed on the counter and didn't break.

He sighed in relief, and, again, reminded himself that he needed to be careful. He grasped the test tube again and moved over to where the reactants were located.

…

The class was moving rather smoothly for him, for once. He had a few more close calls, but didn't actually drop anything. That was, until he had to go get distilled water for some reason or another. He had his beaker, filled it up to where he needed it, and was about to head back to his work station when someone bumped him. Even though he could have sworn he had it in a good hold, it fell through his fingers and smashed on the floor.

"Hey! Watch it!" he warned the offender a moment too late. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that the offender was none other than Dash Baxter, the jock hero and his personal bully. Dash just snickered and moved off as the teacher came over to check the damage.

He was warned, again, that he needed to be careful with the equipment and was forced to clean the mess. He irritably did what he was told, got a new beaker and the water, and moved back to his station.

Why was it that he always got in trouble when Dash did something to him? And, why, when the staff knew that Dash was causing so many problems, didn't someone do something about it? One of these days, he was going to give Dash the payback that he deserved.

As he continued to think about what he was going to do about future paybacks, he absentmindedly reached out to move the reactants away from the heat source. After a moment, he realized that he wasn't actually touching anything. Looking over, he noticed that his hand had gone through both the ring stand and the clamp holding his experiment.

He quickly yanked his hand away and glanced around. Nobody had seen that, right?

He glanced down at his hand. It _looked_ like it was fine. He couldn't see through it. He touched it, and it felt solid. Again, he sighed. Everything was the way it should be, solid. So why…? He couldn't blame his parents' experiments for this one. But maybe he just hadn't seen what he thought he had. Yeah, that was it.

He relaxed and moved his experiment away from the flame with his other hand, just to be safe. The beaker was then just left there for a moment so that he could clean and weigh a watch glass. Once he got over to the sink, he could no longer deny that something was wrong. The piece of glassware just fell through his hand into the sink basin.

He reached in to grab it, but his hand, again, just passed through it. Panicked, he examined his hand again. This time, it was still there, but it no longer had its normal texture or color. It was almost like it was a semi-solid and pale shadow of itself. What was he going to do now?

"Danny…?" someone asked, which made him jump. He quickly spun around, placing his arm behind him, and noticed that Tucker had come over. "Hey, are you alright? You seem kinda jumpy…"

"I'm fine!" he answered, a little too quickly, which made Tucker give him a suspicious look. He then glanced down at his arm, and it appeared to be back to normal. It relieved him, but he was definitely starting to question himself. He then reached towards the watch glass and hesitantly picked it up. Another relief.

"Are you sure?" his friend asked, eyeing the watch glass. Apparently Tucker had noticed unusual relief. "Does this have something to do with the accid…?" He quickly cut him off.

"Shh! No one needs to know about that!" he whispered frantically as he looked around, clenching the watch glass to his chest. "That's the last thing that I want people to know is that I got zapped by my parents' crazy invention!"

Tucker held up his hands defensively. "Alright! Calm down! I'm just askin'!"

He ran his free hand through his hair and sighed. "We'll talk later, okay? I need to get out of this class…" Tucker agreed, which he took as a sign for him to head back to his station. As he walked, he heard the sound of breaking glass. Wincing, he looked and saw the remains of a watch glass on the floor beside him. "Not again…!" he groaned as his hand confirmed that it was now empty.

…

"Hey… what happened during class…?" Tucker asked him as they walked to their lockers at the end of the day. "You were definitely acting like something's wrong."

He glanced down, unsure what he should say. He had been ignoring the questions of his friends during their last class, but now that school was out, there was no way that he could be forgiven for not talking to them. "I think… I'm starting to go crazy…" he finally admitted.

Sam and Tucker exchanged a glance before they looked back at him, waiting for him to continue.

After placing his books in his locker, he floundered a moment as he tried to find the right words. "I… I think I'm seeing things… But… stuff like that just can't happen…!"

"Well… don't just leave us hanging," Sam told him in a demanding voice. "What did you see?"

His answer never came as something grabbed him, spun him around, and pinned him, quite painfully, to the lockers. He looked up to see that it was Dash and his football player cronies. It must be time for his daily pounding. Funny, he thought that was supposed to happen earlier in the day.

"Haven't you gotten tired of this yet?" he asked in a voice that was weird some cross between irritation, monotony, and fear. Even if this happened frequently, he had yet to figure out how to get out of Dash's sight. Even if he hid, the jock still somehow knew where he was. Was it possible that he had a Fenton radar?

"Nope, it's too much fun," Dash answered with a wicked grin. He then picked him up and slammed him in to the locker. "Besides, no one fits as well as you do." He then slammed the door shut and walked away while he and his cronies laughed.

He cursed under his breath. Dealing with that jerk never got any easier, and neither did being stuck in the locker. It was cramped and dark, and the school books didn't make it any more comfortable. At least this time there was someone who knew he was inside to help get him out.

The lock began to turn. "Danny…?" Sam asked. The locker made her voice have a strange metallic sound to it. "You're combination…?"

Right. She needed to know that. He adjusted himself so that she would be able to hear him properly, and somehow, he lost his balance. The next thing he knew, he was falling out of it and landing on top of poor Sam. "I'm sorry!" he told her as he quickly got up, and rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

"Thanks for getting me… out… of… there…?" His words got caught as he looked back at the locker. Its door was still closed. He had thought that he had gotten out of there a little too quickly, but there was no way…!

He glanced down at his hands. He couldn't ignore what just happened, not this time. It was made worse by the looks his friends were giving him which told him that they had just witnessed it too. He had just fallen through a metal door. "Wh-what's happening to me?" he asked. His voice was little more than a whisper, but the panic contained within it spoke volumes.

* * *

_Again, thank you to those who have read this and reviewed. I'm glad that I'm creating something that is enjoyable. _

_Now, going back to the story. It is my opinion that the only way that Danny could have broken so many beakers/test tubes would be if he was working alone on chemistry experiments. Since it appears that his school is of a decent size, but is not overly large, and that the school actually does not waste all its money on its sports teams *glares in the direction of her former high school*, this is completely possible._

_The chem experiment that I mentioned is a very basic one. I've done it numerous times, both in general chemistry and in organic. And, unless you're in one of the higher chemistries, it's not usually dangerous if you break anything for this one. (High schools usually don't let their kids anywhere near substances that can cause fires, major burns, blindness, respiratory problems… etc. The list goes on… I mean, I've worked with substances that have eaten through my latex gloves and given people acid burns…)_

_One more thing and then I'll be done. Glassware does not (usually) break if you drop it from a height of 3 to 5 inches above the counter and it lands on it… Also, I'm surprised there's no mention of him breaking a crucible. Those things can break if you heat them wrong! I've seen it._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_shock (n): a sensation of pleasure or pain caused by something unexpected or overpowering._

_..._

"Danny, calm down!" Sam hissed at him as he paced his room. They, along with Tucker, had retreated to his house after the three recovered from what happened at school.

He glared at her. "I just fell _through_ a locker. How can I be calm?"

"Because you don't want your parents to hear you." Her voice was harsh, but it got through to him. With all the excitement, he had forgotten about that. He gave her an apologetic look as she finally got him to sit down on his bed.

He put his head in his hands and sighed. This wasn't something that he could just explain away with a normal explanation. Did that meant that all of the weird things and his worse-than-usual klutziness that he had just shrugged off earlier were related? It was definitely a scary possibility. What was happening to him?

"Hey, what else happened?" Tucker's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "I mean, it was clear that something was up in science. It's related, right?"

He frowned as he looked at his best friend. Should he tell them? He really didn't want to. It was his problem after all, and if he was afraid, they would probably be too. But, they hadn't run away in terror yet… or in fear of their mental health.

No one said anything for a moment; it was clear that they were waiting for his answer. He sighed and was trying to find words, any words, when a strange feeling over came him. It was almost like part of his body went numb on him, and it was combined with the sensation of sinking. Looking down, he realized that he was beginning to slowly sink into his bed. "H-HELP!" It came out as an urgent stammer.

Just as he began to panic and flail, his friends grabbed him, and pulled in out of the bed. "Thanks…" he said as he glanced back at the bed; it was solid.

"This is getting freaky… How'd you do that?" Tucker asked him. There was a slight hint of fear in his voice.

He shook his head as he uselessly moved his hands. "I… I don't know! The only thing I do know is that it feels really strange!" A sigh escaped his lips. "…At least I didn't fall through the floor again." He winced as he spoke since it didn't sound any better when he said it out loud.

"You 'fell through the floor'!" his friends demanded as they got into his face. He hadn't expected that reaction, so he actually stumbled away from them.

"Look!" he said angrily as he caught himself. "This is probably just some strange illness or something! I'm sure it'll pass in a few days."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "An illness that makes you fall through things? Sorry, if I don't quite believe you." Her tone clearly stated that she was starting to get mad.

"Well, what else could it be?"

"I don't think you're sick either," Tucker said as he looked up from his PDA and held it out in front of him. That caused him and Sam to take a break from their stare down. "I just did a quick search to see if it was possible that a disease could make someone _phase_ through stuff, and all it came back with was ghost stories!"

An eerie silence fell over them for a moment before Sam and Tucker looked at him. Their expressions told him exactly what was on their mind. "You don't really think… I mean, that's impossible!" he told them, not liking the way they were looking at him.

"How else can you explain this?" Sam demanded.

"But ghosts don't exist!"

"Dude, your parents are professional ghost hunters," Tucker pointed out.

He glared at him. "So? They've never actually seen one!"

"That doesn't mean they don't exist!"

"But ghost are _dead_!" he snapped. "Do I look like I'm dead?"

An awkward pause answered the question. "Of course not!" Sam told him quickly after a moment, hoping to calm him down. "It was just an idea, but you got to admit, this is definitely something that's bordering on 'paranormal'."

"I agree, especially considering how you looked coming out of that portal," Tucker added, which caused him to glare at him. "What? You were pretty ghostly looking!"

"I don't look like that now, do I?" he demanded. That had been the one thing he had almost forgotten, and he wasn't too happy that it was brought back up. Although that was the one thing about this whole mess that he didn't quite believe, just thinking about it sent a chill through his body.

He took a deep breath to relax before he spoke again. "Look, I'll admit that something's wrong, but I don't buy this 'ghost' thing for a moment. This is probably just some illness, or maybe even a side effect from the portal or a substance from another crazy invention."

Sam gave a thoughtful look. "Well, that is a possibility… but do you really think that could happen?"

"When it comes to the things my parents come up with, who knows," he answered with a shrug.

"If that's the case, would your parents know how to help?" Tucker asked.

He shook his head violently. "NO!" It came out louder than he had wanted, which made his friends stare at him. He caught himself. "What am I going to say to them? 'Hey, I accidently turned the portal you told me not to touch it, and now I'm starting to fall through things'. That's just going to get me in trouble, and they're not going to believe me anyways."

Sam scoffed at him. "They'd believe you if you showed them!"

That set him off. "Show them?" he repeated angrily. "And how am I supposed to do that? I can't control this! It's not like I can look at my arm, concentrate, and put it through the wall!" He glared at his friends, half daring them to respond.

It was only when he noticed that they had made no attempt to speak when he realized that something was wrong. He glanced nervously at both of them, who were definitely looking spooked. What happened this time? "Wh-what's wrong…?"

Tucker pointed at him. "Your… your eyes!"

Hesitantly, he turned around and looked at himself in the mirror on his dresser, not knowing what to expect. In the mirror he saw his reflection, only instead of having eyes of baby blue, they were a shocking green color. No! That can't be right! Those were the same eyes from the accident! They weren't his!

He stumbled backwards and held his head. Although falling through things was definitely not normal, he could handle it. Now his appearance was starting to change, and this was just too much. Everything was starting to spin out of control.

He glanced again at the mirror, expecting to see the stranger with the white hair, but instead he just saw himself, the way that he always looked. This was just too much.

"Danny… you have got to calm down!" Sam told him, slowly approaching him and indicating for him to sit on the bed. "Getting so worked up isn't going to fix anything! It might even make all of this worse."

"Uh, Sam, if you haven't noticed, I'm a teenager. There's no switch I can press to magically turn my emotions off," he told her dryly. "And now, to make it worse, I have some strange disease that I don't understand."

"Ugh! The only thing wrong with you is that attitude!" she snapped. "We're trying to help you, and this is the thanks we get? If you haven't noticed yet, you're making this worse!"

"…!" He was going to argue, but the words just got stuck. She was right, at least about the helping part. She and Tucker were his best friends, and they were concerned about him. It wasn't right for him to make this harder on them. "I'm sorry…" he finally admitted in a defeated voice. "It's just…"

_It's just_… was he really sick? Something was telling him that this wasn't that simple, and he didn't actually feel sick, other than that chill. Even though he didn't want to admit that, he was definitely beginning to wonder what was really wrong. The word 'ghost' kept coming into his mind. There was no way that could be the answer. They didn't exist, and even if they did, he certainly wasn't dead. But did he die…?

That was the real question. Tucker had told him that he hadn't been breathing, and he wasn't when he first woke up. But, he was breathing now. Then there was his heartbeat; that was something he couldn't forget. What did it mean? He was so confused.

"Well… since you aren't going to tell your parents, I guess the only thing we can do is see what happens," Sam told him. She was still mad, but there wasn't as much of an edge to her voice. "Maybe something else will happen that will give us a better clue."

"Something _else_…!" His voice was definitely alarmed. That was a possibility that he didn't want to think about.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No…"

"And I'll try to do some more research for you," Tucker added. "Maybe there's something I missed."

"Thanks…" He looked around at his best friends. They were trying to help and comfort him, and although he appreciated it, it wasn't making him feel any better. He wanted to know what was wrong, not wait and see what other unpleasant surprises were in store for him. But, in truth, that's all he could do.

* * *

_Two quick reminders. My classes have started again, so updates are going to be sporadic. And again, I'm trying to make this a more gradual realization, so it's not progressing as quickly as it could. I don't like rushing things; they don't flow as nicely._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_shock (n): a sudden or violent disturbance of the mind, emotions, or sensibilities_

_..._

Over the next few days, the only things that he had to show for his waiting was broken glass and fried nerves.

His symptoms were getting worse. It seemed like there wasn't a class period where he didn't have to deal with his pencil falling through his hands or him falling through the desk. Then there was his science class where, in one particularly bad secession, he had broken eight more glass pieces in less than five minutes when his hands decided that they couldn't stay solid. It was happening more and more at home too. The second problem was the disappearing.

He had noticed that particular problem when his hand disappeared quite suddenly in class, only to reappear a few minutes later, much to his relief. It was occurring several times a day, and with each vanishing, a larger part of his body was affected. And that was the most frightening part.

Actually, vanished wasn't quite the word to use. He could still tell where the missing (but still attached) body part was, even if he couldn't see it. The weirder thing was that sometimes he could still grab things when he was like that, making whatever the object was look like it was floating by itself.

Then there was that chill. After briefly mentioning it to his friends that it wouldn't go away, they decided to check his temperature. All of them were surprised when the thermometer showed his temperature to be lower than normal. Not normal variation low, but beyond hypothermic. He shouldn't be conscious with that temperature, let alone be able to walk around! But, he was. This caused him to start taking it a couple times a day to see if it was just a temporary thing.

The fear of his progressing symptoms as well as the fear of someone finding out that there was something majorly wrong with him had really affected his nerves. He was jumpy and a lot more paranoid than usual. He was already considered a geek and was at the bottom of the social ladder, but if any word of this got out, there'd be no telling how much worse his life would get.

Normal kids just got to worry about grades, social statuses, and, occasionally, bullies. No, not him. His main worries now centered around trying to keep himself from turning invisible or phasing through objects at random times. It was so bad that he was having trouble sleeping because of the possibility that he would fall through his bed.

And, to make it worse, he still didn't know what was causing all of this. He and his friends couldn't find a disease, illness, or disorder that could explain what was wrong with him. He was so desperate that he was honestly debating whether or not he should look into curses.

Then there was the fact that he really had no idea what kind of substances his parents used in their inventions, let alone the one that zapped him. Without that information, he couldn't even check to see if he was just having weird side effects from overexposure. After a lot of debating with his friends and losing faith in the illness theory, he finally broke down and asked his parents about it.

…

"So, how'd it go?" Tucker asked as he stumbled through the front door of his friend's house. Tucker's parents' were out that afternoon, so it was decided that his house would be the best for privacy.

He scowled as he plopped down on the couch. "The only thing I found out was that the portal discharged a lot of electricity and ectoplasm when it started up. That's the stuff ghosts are supposedly made of," he explained after noticing his friends' confused looks. "It's the same thing as the glowing green stuff you see around my house a lot. My parents use in their ghost hunting equipment. They said that it's not supposed to affect people." His last statement caused him to smile wryly. It _did_ seem to affect food though.

"Well, it's a start, but how come you didn't try to get more info?" Sam asked.

"They were getting kinda suspicious. I'm not supposed to be interested in this kind of stuff, remember?" he growled. "I made up some story about you guys being kinda worried, since we 'witnessed' it turn on, and cut my losses." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Why is it that everything we try comes back with something to do with ghosts?"

It angered him. Any search they tried relating to his symptoms just brought back ghost stories. It was almost like something was trying to force him to believe in the one theory that he knew just couldn't be true.

"I don't know, but feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to help," Sam scolded as she shoved a large book into his hands. "I borrowed that from the library for one last search. It has a lot of unusual diseases listed, so maybe it'll give us something."

"Thanks…" It came out dryly, since her little display of violence had caused him some pain.

Tucker just chuckled as he gave them an amused look. "And, while you do that, I'm going to check out some links about ectoplasm. What?" he asked as he shot him a glare. "This is the best lead we have! Do you want to know what's wrong with you or what?" He mumbled a 'yes' before he sighed and opened the large book in his hands.

…

"So, Tucker, have you found anything useful yet?" Sam asked after about a half hour of research.

"Not really…" he said as he looked up from his PDA. "Just about everything talks about how it's related to ghosts and other paranormal stuff. There's no mention of what happens when someone gets zapped with it." He looked over at him with a bit of an amused grin. "I guess that makes you the first."

He gave him a sour look. "And I'm supposed to feel good about that why?"

"It was bound to happen to someone."

"Yeah, well, I just wish that it didn't have to be me… Oh, give me a break! Not again." His hand had, once again, phased through the book. "How am I supposed to read this thing if this keeps happening?"

He heard Sam sigh as she put her own research material down. "Truthfully Danny, I don't think you're going to find anything in there."

"We don't know that!" Didn't she want him to find out what was wrong? "It's like you want me to stop searching!"

"No… it's not that…" She sighed again. "Tucker's right. We've looked through an awful lot of things, but nothing matches. Face it; whatever's wrong with you, it's a first."

He didn't want to hear that. He had been hoping, praying that there was something that would give him a logical explanation. But, somewhere deep down, he somehow knew that this was the case all along. He just didn't want to admit it.

He could tell that Sam was staring at him, waiting for some kind of response. To let her know that he knew she was right, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he quickly leafed through the book in his lap, using it as a self-distraction. It was only after a moment of this when the inevitable happened.

"Ow! For the love of…!" A paper cut. He glanced down at his hand to examine the offending injury. Why does something so small hurt so much?

It was a bit deeper than the average one, so a small trickle of blood was coming from it. He was about to wipe it away when he noticed that there was something off about the color. Blood was supposed to be red, right? Then why did it have a greenish shine to it? He moved his hand slightly to see if it was just from the light, but that didn't seem to help.

"Danny…? Is something wrong?" He looked up to see that his friends were wearing concerned expressions.

"N-no!" he answered, a little too quickly, as he clenched his hand against his body. "Nothing's wrong!"

"Come on," she said as she came over and attempted to grab his hand. "Let me see. Compared to everything else, it can't be that bad." She yanked at his hand again, finally pulling it away from his body.

"Let go!" As he said the words, his hand phased through hers. Surprised, he looked at it again. That was the first time his symptoms had ever worked in a way that actually helped. Was that a good sign?

Sam took the momentary pause to grab his hand again and examine it. "Don't you dare phase again!" she warned him as he began to struggle. "What did you get on your hand…? Wait… that's blood…?" She indicated the now-dried substance on his finger.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," he told her sourly as he again tried to free his hand. "You can let go of me now."

She didn't. Instead, she looked at his hand again, turning it over. Whatever she was looking for, it was definitely eluding him. Eventually, her eyes rested on the cut, and after frowning, squeezed it with enough force to cause pain.

"Ow! What're you doing?" he demanded.

"Stop being such a baby," she told him while examining her work. After a moment, she looked him dead in the eyes. "Danny… why is there green in your blood?"

He was about to attempt to make an excuse when Tucker said something first. "Hey! Let me see!" And in the blink of an eye, he was there too, looking at the fresh trickle of blood. "That's definitely not normal…"

They looked at him with concerned eyes as they waited for an answer. He pulled his hand away and glanced at it again before he started rubbing the dried stuff off. What was he supposed to say? He had no idea what this meant. Was it another symptom? "I just noticed it…" he told them hesitantly. "I… I don't know what it means…"

Fear was once again beginning to surface. This… _disease_… was bad enough when he was just falling through things but now it seemed like there were even more changes that he had originally thought. What else was different that he just wasn't aware of yet?

"…Is it possible that it's ectoplasm?" Sam asked.

His head immediately snapped up so he could stare at her. "What did you say?"

* * *

_Unexpectedly fast update! XD_

_I know that there's conflicting words about the color of his blood. I just have a preference for the mixed theory, seeing as when you see him bruised as a ghost, it has a red/purplish look, which indicates red blood. _

_Hmm… Random thought… Well, if the red color of human blood is caused by it coming into contact with oxygen (un-oxygenated is said to be either dark red or a purplish blue depending on what anatomy book you read)… Could it be that his is _red_ when it's _not_, and then a different color when it is…? I have to go ponder that now…_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

_Shock (n): a disturbance in the equilibrium or permanence of something_

_..._

"Wh-what did you say…?" he asked again. Had he misheard her?

"Is it possible that green stuff in your blood is ectoplasm?" Sam asked again with a little more confidence, even if she was giving him a cautious look. He wasn't too sure if he liked it.

He shook his head. "That's… impossible! Ectoplasm can't affect humans!"

"But didn't you say earlier that's _supposedly_ the case?" Tucker pointed out.

"Whose side are you on?" He glared at him accusingly as he stood up before looking back at Sam. "And besides, my parents haven't been affected by it, and they've been using it for years!"

"But they haven't been blasted by a large amount of it at one time, have they?" she demanded.

He looked at her helplessly. She always seemed to know what to say to get him to see the unpleasant truth. No, his parents hadn't experienced anything quite like he had. Even so, he was really hoping that their research wasn't wrong. Because, if she was right, what did that mean for him?

"So… you're saying that I've been infected with ectoplasm?" His voice was had become cold and questioning for a moment before filling with anger. "I already told you that's impossible!"

"Yeah? Well, it's the only thing that explains your _ghostly_ symptoms! Ghosts are made up of the stuff, right? So, if you had some in you, you might be able to do some of the same things!" Even though her voice was calm, she was starting to lose patience with him. "Think about it; it's the only thing that makes sense!"

"There's no proof!"

"Then what else could it be?" She glared at him while she stood up and looked him in the eyes. "I don't see you coming up with any other ideas."

"I so have! You just don't agree with any of them!"

"None of the medical research even comes close to mentioning an illness that makes someone turn invisible or pass through things! Only ghosts can do that!"

"Stop saying 'ghost'! I'M NOT DEAD!"

"Dude! You're eyes!" Tucker warned suddenly. He glanced at his friend, who was now looking kind of scared. His eyes must have turned that disturbing green color again. It had happened a few other times since that first time, always when he was angry. Knowing that, he tried to calm down, but that was a little hard to do at that particular moment.

There was a momentary pause before Sam spoke again. "Danny, I never said you were dead. It's just that, when something like _this_ happens… well… it's not something a human is supposed to be able to do." There was another pause. "Where did you go?"

"Huh? I'm right… Oh great…" He interrupted himself as he glanced down at his body. It had finally happened, he had turned completely invisible. Fear gripped him. This was going to wear off like it had the other times, right?

He sank down on the couch in misery. "How am I supposed to get back to normal…?" His voice had a slightly higher pitch to it.

"Well, look on the bright side, if you don't, you can finally get your revenge on Dash," Tucker told him while trying to stifle a laugh. Apparently he was imagining the scene.

"This isn't funny!"

"Tucker, this isn't the time!" Sam hissed almost at the same time as she sat down on the couch near him and attempted to find his shoulder. He guessed that she could see his indent on the cushion. "Come on, relax!" she told him. "You know this is happening because you're worked up."

He looked at her hopelessly. She made it sound so easy…

…

It was ten minutes before he had been able to become visible again. Even if he occasionally had fun scaring Tucker ("Is it funny now?" he had asked his friend), it was still terrifying, which prompted them to end their secession early. Which was good since he really needed some alone time.

None of his other spells had ever lasted so long. He still had no idea what it was that set it off, or how he was supposed to stop it. He had tried to concentrate on becoming visible, but that was a mess all on its own. Was he supposed to focus on himself? The feeling? Or the concept?

If he had been calmer, maybe it would have gone a little better. Usually, he just had to deal with the shock of doing something abnormal or worry about being seen, but now his mind was seriously considering Sam's crazy idea, which wasn't very comforting.

He didn't want to think about the idea that he was possibly infected with ectoplasm. It really bothered him, especially because, for whatever reason, it made him get the mental picture of a ghost sneezing on him. It also made him consider some very disturbing questions. Could it kill him? Would it turn him into a ghost?

It couldn't be true… but, now that it had been stated, what else could that green stuff in his blood be? Even if he didn't want to admit it, the stuff did look an awful lot like those samples that were forever lying around his house.

"Calm down, Fenton!" he told himself as he finally entered his room and plopped down on his bed. "You are not going to become a ghost, even if you do have ectoplasm in your blood…" Saying it out loud didn't make him feel any better, just worse.

…

An unfamiliar feeling woke him up. At first he thought that he had somehow managed to phase through part or all of his bed again, but after checking himself, that wasn't the case. Nor had he turned invisible again. It puzzled him; what was going on?

He glanced around his room. What time was it? A quick look at his clock told him that it was just prior to three in the morning. That couldn't be right! It was too bright. Confused, he got up to look out the window.

The stars were still out. Their lights shined brightly in the dark sky over a silent city. There were no noises or lights coming from any nearby location. In fact, it was almost as if it had fallen into a deep sleep. The thought amused him slightly, but it didn't explain why it wasn't as dark as it should have been.

He frowned as he glanced at his clock again, which was now saying that it was a little after three. But, if he had to guess, it felt like it was much closer to dawn. He mentally slapped himself. The power must have gone out while he was asleep.

Good thing it was Saturday. He knew that if he fell asleep again after setting his clock practically nothing would wake him up again for several hours. The last time it happened, the only thing that got him up was the sound of one of his parents' weapons malfunctioning. So many bad experiences were associated with that sound that he could recognize it in his sleep.

He smiled wryly at the memory as he found his way to the living room, trying to find some sort of wrist watch to check. Had he ever been up so early/late before? He honestly wasn't sure. It was creepy though since it felt like an artificial twilight had settled in the house.

After a while, he gave up on the watch. It was late, and he was tired. No power outage was important enough to distract him from trying to get back to sleep. It had been the first time since his 'accident' that he had slept well, so he was really interested in seeing if he would be lucky again. He'd just have to wait until he got back up to ask someone the time.

His trip back upstairs was interrupted when he began to sink. He knew that feeling; one of his feet had decided to phase through the stairs again. He sighed as he looked back at it. Yep, it was stuck.

As he pulled at his foot, he realized something else was off. Why was he wearing gloves? He definitely hadn't been when he fell asleep… Wait, it wasn't just gloves. He was wearing a reverse-color hazmat suit that was just a little too familiar to him.

He began to panic as his first memories after the 'accident' rushed back to him. He clutched his hand to his chest in fear hoping that he was just imaging things.

Come on! Why wasn't it there? Wait…. There it was! But, why was it so faint…?

He could feel his eyes widen as an impossible thought hit him. No… NO! It couldn't be! He raced upstairs into his room and immediately threw himself in front of the mirror on his dresser.

The reflection staring back at him was one of a stranger who had pure white hair, glowing green eyes, and a body surrounded by a faint white glow. His expression was panicked, and his hand was still clenched on his unmoving chest.

"N-no…!" His voice was faint and filled with horror as he looked down at himself. The mirror hadn't lied; he really did look like that. He let his free hand rest on the dresser for a moment before he pulled it back with a yelp. It had begun to phase through the wood.

He had to calm down. There had to be a rational explanation for this right?

Nothing felt right. The chill that had never left him was even more pronounced. There was no frantic beat to his heart. No air forcing itself in or out of his lungs. Other new sensations were there as well that he couldn't quite place.

He looked at himself in the mirror again. He couldn't blame this on shock this time. "They were right…" he whispered in a voice that was filled with dread. "I… I am a ghost…"

* * *

_I must thank those who have commented for their support. It makes me so happy, which makes me try to get these chapters out a little faster than I would otherwise._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_shock (v) : to cause to shake or waver_

_..._

What was he going to do?

It had been about an hour since he had awoken as a ghost, and he still had no idea how it happened, how to get back to normal, and if it was possible to get back to normal. Whatever he was going to do, he had to do it quickly since there was no telling when his parents were going to get up. Being a ghost in the home of ghost hunters definitely had its downsides.

In his initial panic, he had honestly thought about waking them, since ghosts were their field. Maybe they knew something that would help him, but he changed his mind as soon as he had gotten into the hall. His parents probably wouldn't recognize him, and there was the definite chance that they might try to capture him, seeing as they always wanted to dissect a ghost 'molecule by molecule.' Self-preservation won out over his panic.

But he definitely needed to tell someone… His sister was out of the question. She probably wouldn't recognize him either, and she didn't believe in ghosts. Most likely, she'd call for help if he woke her, which would get their parents involved. And he really wanted to avoid that situation.

Sam and Tucker were definitely an option… but they were asleep, and it technically wasn't their problem.

…

"Danny… what's wrong?" Sam asked him a few days later at school during lunch.

"Huh…? What? N-nothing's wrong," he told her in a voice that clearly betrayed him. His 'incident' on Saturday had sent his mind into turmoil. Yes, he had managed to figure out how to get back to normal as well as a trigger for his ghostly transformation (though, how he stumbled across it in his sleep was beyond him), but was he ready to openly face it? That was a definite 'no'.

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow as she stared at him. "Then am I just imagining the fact that you've been avoiding us?"

"No I haven't!" In truth, he knew he was. He wasn't entirely sure that his friends would continue to stick by him if they knew that his symptoms weren't just symptoms. So, in order to prevent that from being brought up, he had tried to keep his distance until he understood everything a little better. Apparently, he was failing.

A hand being placed on his shoulder caused him to jump and turn intangible just long enough to fall through the bench he was using and onto the grass. He cursed as he got up and brushed himself off. Why had they decided to go outside that day? He glanced upwards. Oh yeah, it was actually sunny for once.

Tucker tried to stifle a laugh, which caused him to glare at him. "Sorry about that. Man, Danny, you've got to relax. How are you going to last through the rest of the day like that?"

"I'll manage…" he told him irritably as he put himself back on the bench.

"But, seriously, dude…" Tucker's laugh faded into a more serious tone. "Did something happen? You're not acting like yourself, weird symptoms included…"

"And don't say that 'nothing's wrong'," Sam warned him before he got a chance to argue. "We've known you for too long. Well?" She added after a moment when he did nothing but stare at his hands.

"Look," he snapped after finally looking up. "Just let it drop."

"What? Did you have another bad night with your symptoms?" Tucker asked as he started to chuckle. "Falling through your bed's gotta be rough."

"Tuck… I don't think it's that simple…" Sam said after noticing that he wasn't making an attempt to answer. "Danny… did something else happen?"

He didn't look at her or Tucker as he began to fidget. He really just wanted to disappear from their sights, but it wouldn't stop them from trying to get that question answered, even if he could figure out how to do it. They'd go looking for him if he ran; that was certain. They were just as stubborn, possibly even more so, than he was. Eventually, he nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

There was an awkward pause, but he found his voice before they had a chance to ask him another question. "Guys…" He kept his head down as he spoke. "C-can you come with me to the park later? I have something to show you…"

"Danny, what…?" Tucker had just begun to speak when he cut him off.

"Look… I can't talk about it here…"

He sighed as they tried to ask him more questions. Now that they knew something else was wrong, they were going to do whatever they could to find out what it was. They were his friends and had been there from the beginning. In truth, they had already seen his other form… but, would they accept it? Accept _him_ if they saw it again?

He was definitely afraid of the answer, even more so than he was afraid of what was happening to him. Right now, his friends were the only thing that was making this mess bearable… but if he scared them by showing them that… what was going to happen? But they needed to know. He needed them to know…

It was just so complicated. Maybe if he was a bit more decisive this wouldn't be as hard. Maybe…

…

He didn't say a word once school was out. He just headed to the park, knowing that his friends were following while exchanging concerned expressions. While they walked, he thought of a million different things that he could say to make this easier on all of them.

Once they got there, they found a secluded spot and sat down. He looked around nervously, as his friends waited for him to speak. No one was in the general area, which was good, but it didn't stop him from being nervous.

"Come on Danny, it can't be _that_ bad," Tucker told him in an attempt to get him to speak. "I mean, you've already broken… how many test tubes is it now… eighteen? And didn't your symptoms make your pants fall down in the mall last week?"

"Thanks for reminding me," he answered dryly as he felt his face redden as the memory came back to him. Apparently, his symptoms could make things, other than him, intangible as well which definitely hadn't been expected. Hopefully, it wouldn't happen again with his pants, and if it did, he might have to invest in a belt, if it would work in such a situation.

"You got to admit; it was funny."

"Maybe for you…!"

"That's enough!" Sam interrupted, even though she was wearing a smirk, and glanced at him. "Well, come on, Danny, show us your worst! We promise we won't laugh. Right, Tuck?"

Tucker laughed. "Sure… well, only if his pants don't fall off again."

"Your best friend is a ghost, and you're laughing about it?" he demanded as he stood up and glared at him. His anger made him forget his hesitance for a moment.

Both of his friends gave him a strange look as he grimaced at his mistake. "Ghost?" Tucker asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Wait… I thought you hated it when we called you that…"

"And... I thought you didn't believe in them…" Sam added. Her voice was filled with a sort of questioning confusion.

"I didn't… but… then…" He ran his hands through his hair as he groped for the right words. "Saturday… when I got up…" How was he supposed to explain it?

"Danny… breathe…" she told him as she stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay."

He shrugged her hand away. "No. It's not okay! I shouldn't be able to do _this_!" On cue, he used his 'trigger' to create the ring of light around his waist that he now knew preceded the change. The ring almost immediately spilt in two and traveled vertically along opposite sides of his body. And he knew that as soon as the ring faded, his friends would be looking not at him, but at the stranger… the ghost…

His friends had jumped in alarm when the ring first formed. Now they were staring at him with wide eyes. It was almost as if they didn't believe what they had just witnessed. No, they were afraid to believe it. They didn't say anything or move, and it made him cringe.

"Guys…?" he asked uncertainly after a moment, not really wanting to move closer to them. He had no idea how they were going to react, and he really didn't want them to be afraid of him.

Sam's eyes widened as he spoke. She moved closer to him as recognition flitted across her face. "Danny…? Is that really you?"

"Unfortunately…" His voice sounded wary, even to him. He watched nervously as she carefully grabbed his hand and examined it. To him, it was almost as if she was determining if he was really there, and it wasn't some strange dream. "Um… What are you doing?"

"Y-you're so cold!" she said in a whisper as she looked him in the eyes. After a moment, she quickly averted her gaze and returned to examining his hand. Her expression had told him that she was uncomfortable with his current appearance, and he really couldn't blame her.

Although he was happy that she hadn't run in terror, he was definitely wishing that she'd move away from him. His body didn't feel quite as solid as it should, and he had already had some difficulty keeping his arms and legs in their current shapes. It was one of those things that he was really wishing wouldn't happen now seeing as it would probably frighten Sam and Tucker even more than it had frightened him.

Speaking of Tucker… He hadn't said anything since before he'd transformed. Nervous, he looked over at his friend, who appeared to be in shock. "Tucker…?" he asked nervously, cautiously moved towards him.

That seemed to bring him back into reality. He stared at him for a moment before he grinned. "I knew it!" he shouted, not with fear but with a grin of triumph. "I knew you became a ghost! But how come you still can look human?"

And that was definitely not the reaction he had been expecting. As he attempted to figure out how to respond to that, he began to think that maybe it would have been better if his friends had been scared of him.

* * *

_Another chapter done! Again, I must thank those who have favorited and commented upon my story! Much love to you! _

_And I think that I'm starting to get close to the end… my mind's telling me that there's maybe going to be 2 to 4 more chapters._

_I know that I mentioned that he has a 'trigger' for his transformation. This is left vague for a reason, and that would be because I'm actually not too sure which theory I like best. That might change, but right now, I kinda like it like that._

_One last thing before I'm done: You'll notice in this chapter and definitely in the next one that Danny isn't too keyed on letting his friends know everything that's happening to him. I don't know if you guys happen to remember the looks Sam and Tucker gave him in "Mystery Meat" after he transformed to fight the Lunch Lady in the school kitchen, but from their expressions, you kinda get the feeling that he really hasn't flown in front of them before. That can led you to believe that he's not being completely open with them, which is where I'm getting this reasoning._

…_I'm probably just thinking about this more than I have to again…_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_shock (v): to jar with intense surprise, horror, disgust, etc_

_..._

He had to say that he was somewhat relieved that his friends had taken the news of his 'condition' quite well. He thought that they would be either scared or in disbelief, but they proved him wrong. It was definitely a relief to him since there was no way that he was going to be able to get through this, sanity intact, if they weren't going to be there to help him.

Although, he was rather surprised when both of them agreed with the notion of him not telling his parents what happened. They reminded him that his parents were ghost hunters, and they might not believe him and attempt to capture him. It was logical, although he had a feeling that both of them had alternative motives.

Tucker's were not well hidden. He constantly wanted to know if he had developed any new 'powers,' as he now called his symptoms, and if he was getting any control over them. It was clear that he was considering these abilities as a way to get revenge against the bullies, but there were times that he was hinting at him becoming a superhero. That was _exactly_ what he needed…

Then there was Sam. Although it took her a little longer to adjust to the situation than Tucker had, possibly due to guilt, she was still accepting of it. He couldn't be sure what it was, but each time she had to persuade him to stay silent about everything, she used a tone that told him that there was something else on her mind. Maybe it had to deal with her problems with her parents… Well, whatever it was, it was somewhat unnerving.

At times, it just seemed like his friends weren't interested in having him get back to normal. In fact, they were often trying to get him to 'go ghost' so that he could practice control. Did they really want him to remain a freak for the rest of his life? It was this possibility that had caused him to start withholding information from them.

The night that he had discovered his ghostly form, he had also discovered, quite on accident, that he had the ability to float. He had been pacing his room, trying to figure out what he could do when he realized that he was not actually walking on the floor. He had heard from his parents that ghost had the ability to levitate—to fly—but he had never expected it to come so easily to him. It was almost like gravity didn't have a hold on him, which was definitely freaky.

He hadn't told his friends about that symptom, which was hard because of how natural it seemed to be in that form. He honestly didn't want them to think it was cool or to be jealous of him. Although many people dreamt about being able to fly, himself included (although his involved being in a rocket ship), this wasn't something that he could consider a dream come true. He was human, and that meant that gravity was supposed to constantly remind him that it was there. And, now that it wasn't, did that mean that he really wasn't human anymore?

He also hadn't told them how he didn't have to breathe in that form. No matter how he looked at it, it was probably the most disturbing part of the entire thing. To hide it from them, as well as to make himself to feel a little better, he had begun forcing himself to breathe while he was like that, no matter how strange it felt. Though, maybe if he told his friends about it, they wouldn't be quite as laid back about the entire thing.

There was also one other problem, but it was usually left unspoken. Neither he nor his friends knew how it was going to progress. Was it going to stop? Was he going to turn into a full ghost? Was he going to be unable to continue to look normal? And, if it did stop, what would it make him? Not knowing the answers really got to him.

…

For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why he was the one who had to clean his parents' lab. He had no idea where any of their new inventions were supposed to go or what was safe to touch, now that he was pretty sure he was a ghost. And, he was still a liability when it came to anything breakable (it had gotten so bad at school that the powers to be were debating on banning him from touching anything fragile).

As he attempted to make things look somewhat neater, he stole a quick glance at the ghost portal. Even if there were now doors on it to hide the swirling green vortex, its presence definitely unnerved him. It, along with his own stupidity, was the reason that his life was falling apart, and there were definitely times when it felt like it had needed him, the unwilling victim, to become active, even if it sounded ridiculous.

His glance shifted to a scowl as he continued to look at it. What was so great about the stupid thing anyways? Sure, it supposedly led to another dimension, but with those doors in the way, no one could get to it. There was also the possibility that dimension might not be safe for humans. He vaguely remembered one of his parents saying something along the lines that it might not have oxygen or something like that, which was why they were holding off on exploring it. Figures.

And then there were the supposed ghosts. Although his parents kept saying that the zone was full of them, he wasn't sure if he believed that. It had been about two and a half weeks since the portal came alive, and the only ghost he had seen in that time was himself. He figured that there would have been at least one ghost to come out of the portal, but there hadn't been any. And, for some reason, that bothered him.

A sudden beeping had brought him out of his thoughts. He had touched something on the invention table, and it had come alive. Not knowing what it would do, he quickly backed away, towards the stairs. Luckily, it stopped making noise after a few moments and nothing else happened. Even if it was nothing, it definitely made him paranoid, and headed upstairs. After all, the lab was clean enough.

He was about halfway up the stairs when a cold chill went through his body, causing him to go rigid for a moment. It had happened to him before, usually in the house, but he often just shrugged it off as another one of his symptoms. It was one of the weirder ones though since it didn't seem to have a proper trigger like the other ones did.

He was about to push it from his mind when the sound of something heavy opening caught his attention. Before he could even react to it, a strange nasally voice called out and said something about boxes. A large crash followed it.

He quickly headed back downstairs to see what was happening, and more importantly, what was he going to get blamed for breaking. A quick peak around the corner told him that there was a guy with a blue complexion and overalls floating in the middle of the room, along with a few boxes.

"Hey!" he shouted as he re-entered the room. "Put those down! Neither of us know what's in them, or if they're dangerous. And if you break… whatever they are… I'm going to be the one to get in trouble! And, how'd you get in here anyways? There's no way you could have broken in…"

The guy gave him a disbelieving look before shouting, "I am the Box Ghost! I have power over all containers cardboard and square! BEWARE!"

He was about to laugh when something clicked. This guy was actually floating, and it wasn't just his complexion that was blue, it was his actual skin. This guy in front of him wasn't human, but a ghost. Wow, he had not seen that one coming.

It was just about then that the normal reaction to such an encounter hit him. "AH! A GHOST!" He tried to move back towards the stairs so he could run out of there and try to contact his parents who were out searching for ghosts, but a floating box blocked his way. Unsure what precisely it would do, he slowly backed away from it. The ghost then somehow sent more of the floating boxes towards him, which ended up backing him into a corner. Oh, great. He was trapped.

The ghost seemed to be pleased by this and the look of terror on his face. His parents had always warned him that ghosts would go out of their way to harm people, and even if this ghost didn't seem all that threatening, he still had no idea what it could do to him. On top of that, he had no way to run, and, currently, there were no weapons in the lab that were safe enough to use for defense.

As he was trying to figure out what to do, he realized that the boxes were getting closer to him, which forced him against the wall. Scratch that: it forced him partially _in_ the wall. His intangibility had activated probably due to his nervousness, which had allowed his arm and leg to phase into the wall, getting him stuck. This was a problem. If he was stuck in the wall, how on earth was he going to be able to escape?

Something seemed off as he tried freeing himself. Against better judgment, he stole a look at the ghost. It had moved a little higher into the air, apparently to get a better vantage point, as it was watching him with a very strange expression. "How are you doing that?" it shouted suddenly. "You are a human!"

"I'd be nice if that's all I was," he replied bitterly under his breath as he tugged at his leg again. "Wait… duh!" He used his 'trigger' to cause him to transform into a ghost. The sudden change in form caused his limbs to release themselves from the wall, causing him to fall. "Well…at least I'm out…"

He looked back at the ghost, who was looking at him like he was not real, which was somewhat ironic. "You! You are…!"

"A ghost?" he asked in a wry voice, finishing the sentence. "Yeah, it was a surprise to me too." He barely had time to finish speaking when a box came flying at him, causing him to dodge by jumping into the air. He cringed as the box crashed against the wall.

He glared at the ghost. "Hey, that's my parents' stuff! Whoa!" The rest of the boxes came flying at him, without much warning. He was only able to dodge a few of them before he was knocked into the wall and buried under the rest of them.

Who knew his parents' stuff could be so heavy? As he struggled with attempting to get out from underneath them, using both conventional and unconventional methods, the ghost few up very close to him and shouted "BEWARE!" again before it flew through the ceiling and disappeared.

"Now that was weird…." he said when he was almost out of the boxes. "Did I actually scare him off…? Nah, that can't be it." Ghosts were supposed to scare humans; it wasn't supposed to be the other way around. Well, he wasn't technically human was he?

He glanced at the ghost portal. Was that how the ghost had managed to get in? If so, did that mean that other ghosts had come out of there already and that there would be others in the future? He shuddered at that thought. It seemed unlikely that the other ghosts were anything like the Box Ghost… which was probably a good thing, now that he thought about it.

"Well, whatever…" he said as he brought himself back to the more pressing matter at hand, his chores. "Man! I had just cleaned this! …I wonder…" The thought had just come across his mind that maybe it would be faster if he remained in ghost form while he attempted to get everything back to normal before his parents came home.

A sound of a door opening distracted him. "Danny? We're home!" a voice called from upstairs. It was his mother.

"Crud… Well, I guess I have to do this the hard way," he said unhappily as he reverted back to his human form.

* * *

_I honestly tried to get this chapter written for over a month… and I failed miserably. What I have to blame is writer's block, two new video games, Halloween programs (I love learning about old ghost/monster stories), and tests that begin at 7:30am… Oh, and an anime convention._

_The weird thing is that I think that I had a bit of ghostly intervention in deciding who Danny first encountered. I was replying to a message from Hornswaggler… and when I mentioned the debate, I honestly had a box come out of nowhere and attack me. I don't know where it came from, and I asked my mum… and she didn't know how it got there either… so… yeah… Definitely a sign…_

_And, before I forget, the Box Ghost introductory quote comes from the episode entitled "One of a Kind."_


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9  
_

_Shock (n): a sudden blow_

_..._

"Explain to me again why you had to ask one of my parents about ghosts?" he angrily whispered to his friends as they followed his excited father down to the lab.

"Hey, you're the one whose hands keep phasing through things," Sam retorted. "Something he says could help."

"Speaking of which," Tucker interrupted in an amused tone, "did they really ban you from touching anything fragile?" He had only just admitted to his friends that the school had 'banned him for life'. On the bright side, he wouldn't have to worry about breaking anything else, at least at school.

He glared at his friend. "After dropping thirty-four test tubes… That would be a 'yes'. I'm actually surprised they didn't do it sooner."

It was now about three weeks since his accident with the ghost portal, and he was still having a lot of difficulty trying to prevent his symptoms from interfering with practically everything. And, to make it worse, that, combined with lack of sleep due to nerves, was really starting to affect his school work. How was he supposed to do his homework when he couldn't keep his pencil in his hand long enough to get anything written down?

It was clear that this was a problem, and Sam had suggested that maybe he could try asking his parents about ghosts to get more information that could help him figure out how to at least stop the phasing. At first, he had out and out refused to do it, but after a disastrous science class (although explosions are fun, unintended ones just get one's self in trouble), a failed English quiz, and Sam agreeing to be the one to ask, he had finally caved in.

However, he had hoped that Sam would have enough sense to ask his mother, but that didn't happen. She asked his dad, and the next thing that he knew, his father had assumed that the three of them were interested in hunting ghosts and was leading them down to the lab so that he could 'blather out about ghosts.' It was going to be a very long day.

…

"So Danny… You and your little friends want to hunt ghost?" his father asked, although his question sounded more like a statement. As soon as he had gotten into the lab, he had found three chairs and practically forced the kids to sit in them. They were going to be his audience whether they liked it or not.

He tried to hide a wince as he looked up at his father. "Actually Dad… I want to be an astronaut."

"Sorry, Mr. Fenton," Sam said before his father could say anything else, "I was into ghosts, but they're so main stream now. They're like cell phones." Her voice sounded bored.

"Waste these good looks and all this charisma hunting ghosts?" Tucker asked as his father looked at him. "Criminal."

His father didn't seem bothered by the lack of enthusiasm. Instead, it just seemed to fuel his desire to talk. "Well, if you do want to hunt ghosts, there are a few things you need to learn." He then turned towards one of the various tables in the lab, apparently looking for something or other that supposedly could help with ghost hunting. Hopefully, the 'whatever it was' wouldn't work.

He sighed and rested his head on his hand. He knew it was a bad idea to ask his dad anything, and now they were going to be stuck there, possibly for hours, waiting for him to finish. It was definitely not how he wanted to spend the remainder of his day. There was homework that he desperately needed to finish, and although he didn't want to spend time doing that either, it was more of a necessity than listening to his father speak.

He was also aware that he could possibly do something that could alert his father to his condition. He cringed as he imagined what could happen. A sudden chill followed by his breath becoming momentarily visible distracted him from thinking about possible 'what ifs'. He knew what that meant. "Oh no…" he whispered as he became suddenly alert.

After his run in with the Box Ghost and a few ghost animals that had somehow come through the portal, he had discovered that it seemed to be what was in his opinion the strangest alarm system ever. It seemed to specifically let him know that there was another ghost (besides him) in the immediate area. Why he had it, he had no Idea. It was just chalked up as another strange symptom the portal accident caused, but at least this one was somewhat useful… even if he didn't want to deal with any more ghosts.

"This isn't good…" His attention sudden shifted to the portal as its doors suddenly opened. He barely got a chance to see the two ghosts come out of it before they grabbed Sam and Tucker. They didn't even have a chance to yell. He carefully looked at his dad, who hadn't even noticed! He was still too busy talking to his 'captive' audience.

For a moment, he debated what he should do. He could attempt to save them, but how would he do that? He still didn't have full control over his abilities, and his dad could notice him. He could alert his dad, but do any of the inventions actually work? He shook his head. He didn't have time to worry about this! His friends were in trouble!

Without a second thought, he leapt at the ghosts, which he now noticed were octopi, and transformed practically in midair. After a few punches, the octopi released their captives (oddly enough, right back into their seats) and turned their attention completely to him.

The one decided to grab him, but somehow, before that could happen, he grabbed the tentacles and used them to swing the thing around, letting it go so that it would collide with the other one. He then kicked the one and threw a jab at the other and was surprised that they actually connected.

The octopi then attempted to surround him, but somehow he knew that he had to get out of the way. He barely had time to raise himself higher in the air when the octopi crashed into each other. Grinning at how ridiculous the tangled ghosts looked, he knocked them both to the ground with a well-placed kick. He quickly touched down beside them and gave them a few more punches, just for good measure.

After they were finally able to untangle themselves, they flew up into the air, and after giving him a wary look, they flew back into the portal. A moment after they left, he got out of his defensive stance and realized that his father had yet to notice anything. Hoping for it to stay that way, he quickly reverted back to normal and leapt back to where the chairs were located.

The first thing he noticed once he got there was that he was absolutely exhausted and out of breath. He was going to ponder that later, but his first goal was to get air back into his screaming lungs.

"Now, who wants to hunt ghosts?" his dad asked as he finally turned his attention to the teens, who were unable to say anything (due to fear, and in his case, lack of breath). "You kids, look at you! You're too excited to speak. So, I'll just go on speaking." And, he did.

After finally catching his breath and exchanging a look with his friends, he just hung his head and, after a moment, walked back to his seat. There was no way to get out of this. Well… unless there was another ghost attack. And at this moment, he might just prefer that.

….

"Well, that was pointless," Sam stated once his father finally let them go, and to ward off any other possible encounters with him, they immediately went up to his room. "Now I know why you didn't want me asking him."

He glared at her as he plopped down on his bed. "And, thanks to you, I got to hear his life story, again!"

"Oh, come on," Tucker said as he nudged him. "That part about your grandmother and the rhubarb was hilarious."

"Ha ha, very funny."

"Oh, that reminds me," Sam stated suddenly, which made the other two look at her. "Thanks for saving us."

He blushed slightly and rubbed his neck. "You're welcome. But, I didn't really do anything."

"What are you talking about? You just forced two ghost octopuses back into the ghost zone! I didn't even know there were such things!"

"Tuck, it's octopi. Don't you speak English?" Sam asked rather irritably before turning to him. "But he's right, you know. I mean, your dad didn't even notice anything!"

"That, and we couldn't even move to fight back." Tucker glanced at his PDA before looking at Sam. "Are you sure it isn't octopuses?"

"Let's just call them Ectopuses and move on," he sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "This isn't worth fighting over."

"And now we know why you aren't doing well in Lancer's class." Sam's statement earned her a glare, but it did stop that particular argument. "So, how did you fight those things? I mean, no offense, but you're not all that strong."

"I dunno… I noticed that myself…"

"Maybe you have super strength," Tucker suggested, which caused both him and Sam to look at him questionably. He shrugged. "Hey, which everything else that's happening, it's a possibility."

Sam laughed as she seemingly when with it. "And just how are we going to test this?"

"Don't look at me! I'm not the one with the superpowers!"

"They're not superpowers!" he warned them.

Tucker gave him a disbelieving look. "Dude, you just saved us from two ghosts! Doesn't that automatically make them fall into the 'superpower' category?"

Although he had begun to argue why that didn't count, he couldn't help but feel somewhat good about the praise his friends were giving him. Maybe, just maybe, if it wasn't possible to get his symptoms to go away, he could use them for situations like the one they had encountered today.

He shook his head. He was starting to sound like Tucker. There was no way that was ever going to happen. What had happened in the lab was probably just a weird situation. Ghosts attacks? Please. He was starting to sound like his parents.

* * *

_A couple things:_

_Unless those in charge of the English language have changed the rules, the actual plural for octopus is octopi. (blame Latin! XP)_

_Can I just point out that I honestly never thought that I'd write the word 'tentacle' in a fanfiction? It makes me feel a bit dirty… (Blame my friends for that one).  
_

_There are quotes from Mystery Meat that were used in this chapter._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

_Shock (v.):to come into contact violently, as in battle_

_..._

Let's see… He had the powers, the costume, and according to Tucker, all he needed was the ability to fly and a cool sounding name for his alternate identity, and he would be a true superhero. Little did his best friend know that he had already achieved one of the two remaining 'hero criteria.' In truth, he really didn't like lying to his friends, but he didn't want to give them, especially Tucker, any more fuel for the fire.

He didn't want to be a hero. He just wanted to be normal again. He was absolutely certain of that.

These symptoms, not powers, still had a mind of their own, and while he was starting to understand their mechanics, they still had a tendency to go off on their own. Usually, they were brought on by a sudden strong emotion, although there were occasions that they'd just go off on their own, especially his intangibility. That symptom had a special love of occurring when he was using the stairs or was in his chemistry class. He still had no idea how he had not managed to not cause some sort of devastating explosion, even with his friends helping him out.

However, there was something that was bothering him, which was beginning to scare him even more so than his symptoms. It had started after he had discovered that he could fly. After curiosity got the better of him and actually practiced it, he discovered that it was actually thrilling, and, even though he tried to deny it, he had definitely enjoyed it. He knew he shouldn't nor did he want to… but it had happened.

If it was possible to get him back to normal, flying was definitely the one thing that he was going to miss. It was this thought that frightened him. If he was able to get used to one of his symptoms, then there was definitely the looming possibility that he could get used to the others. Would he get used to being non-human too?

He really didn't want to think about that possibility… Instead, he tried to push it from his mind as much as possible and, instead, concentrated on thinking about what could fix him as well as how to cope until he figured it out.

….

"Two more days, and it's done!" his mother stated suddenly after finishing some wielding work on a strange looking machine that just happened to be sitting on the kitchen table. Yep, it was just like any other day in the Fenton household, save for the fact that his arm had decided to vanish not even a minute before she had finished.

The invention, whatever it was, was probably just another strange cooking device that was powered by ectoplasm, so it really wasn't interesting enough to distract him from the problem of his missing arm until…

"It's done?" his father shouted excitedly as he scooped up the machine and proudly displayed it for all in the kitchen to see. "The Fenton finder is done! This baby uses satellites to lead you right to the ghosts!"

That definitely caught his attention. "It uses what to track what…?" he asked warily as he got out of his chair and began to back away from the table hoping that he had heard his parents wrong and hoping that he wasn't enough of a ghost to be picked up by the machine.

His hopes were immediately dashed when the machine, which talked the same way a GPS did, told his parents to walk forward, towards him. It told them to stop after they had cornered him against the wall, which caused them to stare at the machine in confusion for a moment. Thankfully, his symptoms decided to malfunction during that time, instead of while they were looking at him.

A moment later, he came back into the visible spectrum, causing him to sigh. It had been an entire month since he had been struck by his strange affliction, and it showed no signs of getting any better. His breaking point was coming, and after a split-second decision, he decided that he was finally going to tell his parents the truth about what happened. Well… he was until his sister decided that her unwanted psychoanalysis was needed to save him from being further infected by the insanity that came from their parents. She even decided that she was going to drive him to school… which was not something he was going to argue with since she was in her over-protective psychologist mode.

…

Once he got to school, he immediately found Sam and Tucker and filled them in on the earlier adventure. As they went up the stairs to their classroom the conversation had shifted to his thoughts on spilling his secret (which was followed by another incident) and his desire to be normal. That quickly got ignored after the conversation somehow shift to his friends' eating habit, which lead to the discovery that Sam had managed to convince the school board to try a new lunch menu, ultra-recyclo-vegetarian to be exact.

When lunch came around and they actually saw what they were going to be eating, he was absolutely amazed that Tucker, the self-proclaimed meat connoisseur, did not go into convulsions then and there. They were serving what honestly appeared to be grass on a bun and mud pies ("with mud, from the ground" as Dash so nicely put it later). Even after getting a close up view of the stuff, there was nothing that could convince him it was edible and therefore got dubbed "garbage" much to Sam's dismay.

As the argument was about to get underway about which one of their thoughts on the 'garbage' was right, a familiar cold sensation, followed by a gasp and shiver interrupted it. "Uh, guys… I've got a problem," he told them as his breath became momentarily visible.

Before he could say another word, something that felt a lot like mud nailed him in the back of his head which was followed by Dash shouting his name. "Make that two problems," he corrected as he turned just in time to see the bully march up to him.

Dash was definitely unhappy with the change in menu, and even though it wasn't his fault, Dash seemed to consider his closeness to the actual culprit reason enough for another chance to terrorize him. Although he was surprised that there was no actual beating this time, Dash's tone definitely indicated that if he didn't do what he was told and ate Dash's mud pies, he might be killed…. Well, made more dead.

That was a strange thought. Was it technically possible to kill someone who was already half ghost? If he didn't have Dash in his "I will kill you if you don't listen" mood right behind him, he might have continued to think about it.

He was about to do what he was told, but another shiver distracted him. Glancing up, he saw… something… an old lady maybe?... glide silently behind the lunch stand. Yep, there was definitely a ghost in the building. He had to do something. But what would distract every single person in the cafeteria long enough for him to get away?

He glanced back down at the 'garbage' on the table. That was it! "Uh…Um… GARBAGE FIGHT!" he shouted as he threw the plate of mud into Dash's face. That definitely got everyone's attention, and in the blink of an eye, every student had happily begun to throw mud around the room. He, along with Tucker and an irritated Sam, used the fight to crawl safely to the kitchen.

"You're gonna pay for this, Fenton!" Dash shouted after him.

"Great, I'm still his favorite," he muttered as he looked back long enough to see him get pelted in the head with mud. It was bitter sweet, in a way.

...

For what was left of his life, he had no idea what possessed him to go see what the ghost was doing. He just _had_ to do it. Though, in truth, he had no clue what was going to happen when he opened the kitchen door. However, he knew none of his potential thoughts involved an old lady ghost just looking around. It was just too normal.

"Hah! It shouldn't be so bad. She looks a little like my grandmother…" Tucker said softly as they watched.

"Shouldn't she be haunting a bingo hall?" was his sarcastic reply. Right now, everything was good. He really had no idea what Tucker was indirectly suggesting he should do about her, but he definitely didn't want to do it, whatever it was.

"Hello children," the ghost said rather sweetly as she noticed them for the first time and floated closer to them. She made no indication on whether or not she had heard their comments or not. A worried expression crossed her face as she asked them about the menu for the school and if someone had changed it.

"Yeah," Tucker said as he pointed to Sam. "She did."

Apparently, that was not the answer the ghost was looking for as her sweet demeanor changed in a nanosecond to that of a crazed and enraged, you can't forget enraged, psychopath.

"YOU CHANGED THE MENU?" she yelled, which caused the three of them to back away from her. "THE MENU HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR FIFTY YEARS!" She then roared as she floated into the air and raised her hands.

Without even thinking, he jumped in front of his friends. "Get behind me!" he warned them as he watched the Lunchlady ghost's energy seemed to swirl around her. Sam said something sarcastic in response to him, but he didn't pay any attention to that. His friends were now in danger, and even if he didn't want to fight, he had to do something!

He raised his arms in the air as well as he shouted, "I'm goin' ghost!" And with that, he transformed into his ghostly half and shot into the air. He knew that he was going to have to answer an insane amount of questions from his friends, judging by the startled looks he had almost missed, but he couldn't worry about that at the moment. There was a much bigger problem.

"I command you to… go away…!" he told her nervously while attempting to look like he knew what he was doing. He had a feeling that wasn't going to work, but it was worth a shot. The ghost just glared at him before she somehow managed to levitate a bunch of dishes and sent them after him. Grasping his head in a protective way, he somehow managed to turn intangible long enough for all of them to pass through him harmlessly. That was definitely a relief!

The ghost was definitely not happy about her attack not hitting and sent another wave of dishes at both Sam and Tucker. Without thinking, he quickly flew down, somehow managed to catch all of them, and placed them down without breaking one. For someone as clumsy as he was, it was definitely an impressive feat.

"Well, if this superhero thing doesn't work out, I could have an exciting career as a busboy," he told himself as he glanced at himself in the plate he had just removed from his mouth. He hadn't been quite lucky enough to catch all of them with his hands. Who knew what had been on those plates?

Movement caught his attention. In the plate, he managed to catch the reflection of the ovens behind him that were currently attempting to break free of the wall due to an infestation of ghostly energy. Without a second thought, he threw the plate down and zoomed behind Tucker and Sam.

As he grabbed their arms, he concentrated as hard as he could on turning intangible. He knew that sometimes the things he touched when he was practicing would be affected by his symptoms too, so why shouldn't his friends? True, he had never attempted it with something as large as a person, but there was a first time for everything. And, apparently, this was that time.

He heard Sam and Tucker gasp, which caused him to quickly glance at them. It seemed to be working, but there was no time to be absolutely sure, the ovens had escaped and were flying towards them. It was definitely time to escape, and almost effortlessly, he pulled his two friends through the wall.

* * *

_Author's note: And that seems like a great place to stop. XD I was expecting this to be the last chapter, but apparently, it had other plans, but there's defiantly only one more to go._

_And, I'm sorry that this didn't get posted sooner. I'm apparently horrible at trying to stay on track._

_Oops, and before I forget, the quotes used are from Mystery Meat. Yes, I've paraphrased a lot and left out dialogue, but that's done in order to respect the copyright._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_Shock (n): pain and muscular spasm as the physical reaction to an electric current passing through the body_

….

As soon as they phased through the wall, he let go of his friends causing the three of them to tumble to the ground in one of the hallways. He was the first to recover. Jumping up, he glanced at his hands as well as his friends. That was way too close for comfort, but it had actually worked! He actually had momentary control of his powers… err… symptoms! If there wasn't the chance that the ghost was going to follow them, he would probably be jumping for joy.

Sam was much less pleased than he was. "This is the thanks I get for thinking like an individual?" she demanded of no one in particular.

He was debating on whether or not he should actually say something, but was distracted by a loud sound. That sound was then followed by the lights flashing before going out completely. There was a very eerie force in the air which really worried him. The ghost wasn't even near them… well, at least that's what it seemed like, and she was able to affect objects in the hallway.

The lockers suddenly flew open, and a powerful wind rushed through the hall and sent a bunch of school supplies into the air. For some reason, he had a sudden flashback to some of the horror movies he had seen. In those movies, things like this indicated that the ghost was very angry. If those parts of the movies were true, that meant that things were about to get a lot worse.

And it did. The ghost appeared out of nowhere in front of them and seemed to draw the wind towards her. What was odd was that chunks of meat were now in the air as well as the school supplies. But, what made it really creepy was that those pieces of meat were attaching themselves to her.

As he watched, he noticed that Tucker was way more interested in trying to figure out where the meat came from. How could that boy think about eating when his life was in danger?

The ghost roared at them. "Prepare to learn why meat is the most powerful of the five food groups!" Then, in a blink of an eye, her demeanor changed to that of when they first saw her. "Cookie?" They refused, which seemed to infuriate her again. "THEN PERISH!"

He immediately slid in front of Sam. There was no way he was going to let this ghost hurt her or anyone else for that matter. "Forget it!" he warned her. "The only thing that has an expiration date here is you!" He flexed his arm, in an attempt to seem more powerful, but for some reason that caused him to revert to his human form. As he stared at himself for a moment, he briefly thought that he had the worst timing ever. "Woops… I didn't mean to do that…"

He didn't even get a chance to recover from his setback. The ghost seemed to instinctively know he was momentarily powerless. She grabbed him and threw him into the wall. He had just enough time to look up to see her grab Sam and take off down the hall.

Tucker rushed over to him while trying both to help him up and urge him to chase after them. They never got the chance as something grabbed both of them from behind. He looked up to see Mr. Lancer glaring at him. "You two aren't going anywhere!" he warned them threateningly while Dash gloated behind him.

….

In what seemed like only an instant, both he and Tucker were still in Lancer's office. Unfortunately, this was his first time in it, which made him more worried. He had absolutely no idea what to expect from the bald man. He had heard stories from some of the upperclassmen, but as he had learned, stories often are not accurate.

Or, in this case, perhaps they were….

After a moment, Lancer had managed to find and go through their files. After reading them aloud, he was surprised to see that there were no major reports on either of them, which seemed to make him angrier.  
"So gentlemen, tell me…" he said as he glared at them. "Why did the two of you conspire to destroy the school cafeteria?"

He knew it was illogical, since he started the entire mess, but he tired to blame it on Dash, who was currently watching them while wearing a smug expression. Lancer quickly dismissed the notion. Though, he was unable to tell if it was because he knew that they were really the ones who started it or just because he couldn't let the reputation of the star quarterback be tarnished.

Lancer then decided that he had to leave the door for a moment and allowed Dash to watch the door from the outside. Apparently, Lancer was overly paranoid that his two detainees would try to escape. If the situation wasn't so bad, he might have laughed about it, since it's unlikely anyone did unless they could go through the walls… or tried to jump out the window. Well, his peers could be desperate at times.

"We've gotta find Sam," Tucker told him as soon as the door closed. "For some reason… I feel like I got her kidnapped…"

Really? He fought the urge to smack his face with his hand, though it wasn't enough to stop him from making an incredibly sarcastic remark, which Tucker ignored. Instead, he told him that the meat was still in the nearby area.

He glanced at his friend before he shook his head to look at the video screens in the office. Tucker's sense of smell was definitely making him question his friend's status as a human (even if he had no right to talk), but he would have to think about that later. There was a trail on one of the screens from what appeared to be meat. After pointing that out to Tucker, he quickly transformed again, grabbed his friend, and went through the floor.

A sudden smirk crossed his face. Lancer was definitely going to be angry when he found out that the two of them literally disappeared from underneath his nose.

….

Yep… Tucker definitely made him wonder sometimes. He had brought them to a room that was filled from floor to ceiling with boxes of meat, and Tucker seemed to be in absolute heaven. He was actually hugging some of the boxes. It was definitely starting to fall along the lines of disturbing.

There wasn't much time to dwell upon it though as a laugh startled them. Quickly and as silently as possible, they sneaked to the edge of a section of boxes. On the other side, they saw the Lunch Lady, back in her normal form, trying to coax Sam, who was trapped inside a pile of meat, to try some. She wasn't having much luck, though it wasn't deterring her that much, to put it lightly.

"I'll take care of the ghost," he told Tucker. "You just find a way to get Sam out of that pile of meat!"

While wearing what was perhaps the most serious expression that had ever been seen of his face, Tucker held up a knife and fork. "Way ahead of you."

Although he was not entirely sure if Tucker's idea would work or where he had gotten the eating utensils, he flew up and punched the ghost from behind. He was quite pleased to see that it sent her into a wall. Hoping that it had her stunned, he aimed a flying kick at her. Unfortunately for him, she had recovered and caught him by the leg.

For a moment, she held him up and somewhat regarded him. "Don't you see? This is why you need meat!" she roared at him as she hurled him at a wall. "You're skin and bones!"

Scared, he concentrated for a moment and managed to turn intangible just before he hit. Unfortunately, he hadn't been thrown quite hard enough, so he ended up only going half way through it. It definitely took him a moment to fix that problem, and when he did, he found himself face to face with a new one. The Lunch Lady had used her powers to open a box of shish-kebobs, skewers, and anything else that was related.

When he would think back on the fight, he would still have no idea how he did what happened next. As the shish-kebobs were thrown at him, he was somehow able to split himself at the waist (yet, still be attached) and dodge all of them. He was definitely very relieved about that, but as he put his body back to normal, the Lunch Lady yelled.

All of the boxes opened at one time and expelled their contents. The meat from them as well as what had been trapping Sam flew into the air for a moment before attaching themselves to the ghost again. Unconsciously, he had floated up into the air while that happened, which had been a huge mistake. The ghost reached out and grabbed him, and once again, she threw him at a wall. This time, he went all the way through it.

He had managed to turn tangible right after passing through the wall, allowing him to crash into a pile of boxes. Thankfully, these ones didn't have any meat in them. He sighed as he pushed himself up. Not only was he starting to get a headache from all of this, if this continued too much longer, he might just swear off meat for the rest of his life. Wouldn't Sam be happy?

He flew back through the wall just in time to watch the Lunch Lady begin to chase Sam and Tucker. Without much thought, he quickly managed to catch up to them. There definitely wasn't much time before the ghost caught them, so he grabbed his friends and, once again, went through a wall.

In a matter of moments, he had taken them outside. For some reason, he had the desire to take them to some place safe before he put them down. But, he was definitely tired, even if their weight didn't bother him too much.

"Gee, Danny," Sam said as she looked up at him, "Fighting meat monsters? Flying though walls? You must be exhausted." He was definitely surprised that she wasn't angry at him for something or that she hadn't asked about why the three of them were definitely not on the ground. Maybe she was waiting for later to ask that.

He had to stifle a yawn. "What? Of course not!" he tried to say defensively. "What would… give you that idea…?" The last thing he remembered before everything went black was that he was falling.

…..

Something startled him awake. After panicking a moment, he looked around to find that he was in his bed and both of his friends were looking at him with worried expressions. "Wha-what's going on?"

"You passed out," Tucker told him, in a somewhat comforting way. "We took you home. You've been asleep for four days!"

He could feel his eyes bug out as he sat up. There was no way that he could have been out that long, could there? Fortunately, Tucker was just joking with him, which caused Sam to yell at him for being careless. Then that got the two of them arguing about whose fault the entire mess was and the school menu. He just stared as the two of them stormed out of his room. A sigh escaped his lips as he fell back down on his pillow. Hopefully, this whole thing would blow over by tomorrow.

* * *

_And… I'm still amazed that it's not done! The last chapter (and there is only one more) will definitely be up before I start back to school. Why am I sure of this? Well, it's mostly written already._

_Once again, I was using quotes from "Mystery Meat"._

_That's about it for chapter 11. See you next time!_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_Shock (adj): of, relating to, or being a criminal sentence or condition of release involving participation in a program of vigorous physical training, discipline, regimentation, and rehabilitation therapy_

…..

Or, Sam and Tucker's feud could get ten times worse. He was absolutely amazed to see that there were two different protests occurring, one for meat and one for veggies, in front of the school when he arrived the next day. "You guys put together two protests in one night…?" he asked them rather uncertainly.

And, immediately, he regretted asking that. Both of his two good friends decided that there were going to tell him how by explaining the assets of their chosen foods. Then, they demanded to know which side he was on.

Although he would never admit this to his friends, he was quite glad when the disembodied laugh came from the sky and drew all the meat towards it. It saved him from having to answer that question, which was definitely a good thing, even if the owner of that voice was not.

As the Lunch Lady showed herself, the people in the two crowds began to panic. After a quick mention to his friends, he got the two to hide him for a moment as he transformed. As soon as he was done, he flew up to the angry ghost.

There was one other thing that crossed his mind as he got ready for round two. Hopefully his school wasn't going to be stupid enough to attempt to reuse the meat that the ghost stole. Although he was used to food contaminated with ectoplasmic energy, he was pretty sure that no one else was.

…..

For a moment, it looked like his volley of punches and kicks worked, as the ghost fell over. However, he managed to let his guard down for one moment, and she managed to hit him so hard that it caused him to fly through a plane that was traveling overhead. He righted himself just after he passed through it, and headed back towards the fight, again, passing through the plane, grabbing a glass of water and splashing it in his face in the process, most likely frightening the person who had been holding it.

He flew as fast as he could down towards the ghost, who was in her 'meat monster' form, and crashed into her, somehow causing an explosion large enough to cause a crater. As he pulled himself out of it, the Lunch Lady appeared in front of him. This time, she was in her normal form.

"Oh dear! What a mess," she exclaimed sounding, once again, much like a grandmother would. "Are you okay?

That was a little odd, but he went with it as he cradled his one arm. "Yeah… I think so." That attack was probably not a good idea, now that he thought about it.

"Tough!" the ghost yelled at him while going into a towering fury. "Because you being okay is not part of my balanced diet of doom!" She then summoned some more meat, but instead of attaching to her, they formed into five miniature versions of her monster form.

He leapt up into the air, which caused the five creatures to follow him. With a simple kick, he managed to destroy all of them. However, his feelings of victory were quickly crushed as the creatures reformed. "Wasn't expecting that…" he said to no one as he tried to figure out what to do with an enemy that he probably couldn't beat. And, to make matters worse, his symptoms decided to turn him back into a human. "Or that…"

The meat creatures didn't give him a chance to even think about what to do next. They grabbed him and took him into the air. He had no idea where they were going to take him, but he definitely knew that he wanted no part of it. But, before he could think of a plan, he was struck in the face with something hard.

After grabbing the strange object, he realized that it was the Fenton thermos. Maybe this was a good thing. It was supposed to be able to trap ghosts, but his dad said that it didn't work. But, he would have to figure that out later since the creatures decided that it was a perfect time to drop him.

Just before he hit the ground, he managed to change back into his ghost form. As he flew into the ground, he called out and thanked his parents, who had decided to come onto the school grounds for some reason. That was another thing he was going to have to worry about later. His parents were ghost hunters; he was a ghost. That was a bad combination, but that was going to have to wait.

He had a ghost to stop .

…..

Going underground to create a shortcut for himself, he managed to sneak up on the Lunch Lady. She glared at him as she noticed the thermos in his hand. "No! Soup's not on today's menu!"

"I'm changing the menu, permanently!" he shouted in a confident voice, even though he pleaded with the thermos to work only a moment later. He opened up the device and pointed it at her while concentrating. For a moment, it felt like some of his energy was flowing out of him.

The next thing he knew, a beam had shot out of the thermos which managed to suck the Lunch Lady into it. After looking around of a moment, to see if it was really over, he reverted back to his human form and capped the thermos. It was finally over.

"What happened? Where's the ghost?" Sam asked him once she and Tucker had come over.

He smiled as he glanced at the thermos in his hands. "My parents have their moments," was his answer. A noise caught his attention, giving him just enough time to hide the thermos behind his back as his parents rushed over.

"Ghost directly ahead," he heard a voice say. Great, they had decided to bring the Fenton Finder with them. "You would have to be some sort of moron to not notice the ghost directly ahead."

Apparently, not only was the machine accurate, it was rude. His parents gave him a puzzled look as they tried to understand why their son was where their radar said a ghost should be. He guessed he should be thankful that they were still in the dark, but it was still a bit uncomfortable.

"Sorry, Dad," he told him while putting on the most honest expression that he could muster and gesturing behind him. "You just missed him."

That was apparently all his parents needed, as they ran off. His dad's shout of "We got a runner," definitely amused him.

A strange look from Tucker got his attention, which earned his friend a confused look. "So, you're not gonna tell 'em?"

He smiled as he shook his head, surprised that after everything that happened, his friend had remembered that conversation. "Nah. I think I might have finally figured out what these powers are for," he told him, which caused both of his friends to give him a startled expression. "They make me…"

There was no chance to finish his sentence as a hand grabbed him. "In a world of trouble…" Lancer finished as he glared at the boy.

…..

The punishment wasn't too bad. He, along with Sam and Tucker, had to clean up the mess from the two protests and the Lunch Lady. Though, after they were finished, he was not too sure if his appetite would ever come back. Meat doesn't smell very good once it's been allowed to sit in the sun for a few hours or longer.

Although he had wanted to head back home when they were done with the clean up, he knew that he had to face his friends first. There were too many questions that needed to be answered.

"I still don't understand it! Why didn't you tell us that you can fly?" Tucker demanded of him, practically as soon as they were off the school property. "That's like the best power in the world!"

He chuckled. "Yeah, it is pretty cool."

Sam raised one of her eyebrows as she gave him an accusing glance. "Oh, it's cool now? What happened to you hating your symptoms?"

"Didn't you hear him earlier, Sam?" Tucker's voice was now full of excitement. "He called them 'powers' not 'symptoms'."

"Well, Danny, what brought about this sudden change?"

He put his hands behind his head and glanced up at the darkening sky for a moment before he answered. "I… I really don't know. At first, I just wanted to make sure that you guys weren't hurt… But, after a bit, I began to notice that… it just seemed to feel right. I'm the only person who could have stopped that ghost, and I think that I was already aware of that, even if I didn't admit it."

Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "That's a pretty big commitment. Do you think you're up to it, Ghost Boy?"

"Ghost Boy?" He definitely raised an eyebrow at the new nickname.

She grinned at him almost devilishly. "It fits."

"Not really…"

"Why not?"

Tucker just laughed. "It's probably because he wants to be referred to as a 'ghost man', not a boy." He glared at his friend, even if he was right.

That just caused Sam to join in with a laugh of her own. "You're not there yet, Danny. Maybe once you get a little more practice. Wait, who am I kidding? You need a lot more practice if you want to be taken seriously."

"Hey!" Was this pick on Danny time or something? Hadn't he saved their lives no more than a few hours ago?

Tucker nudged him in an attempt to get him to laugh. "Lighten up, Dude! We'll be here to help you so that you won't embarrass yourself in front of the girls." Before he could even reply to that, Tucker brought out his PDA and began doing something. "Starting tomorrow, we begin 'operation: training'!"

He just looked at his friend before he just started laughing hopelessly. "Remind me why I agreed to this again?"

He could already tell. Tomorrow was going to be the start of something shocking. He wasn't sure if that was going to be good or bad. But, after what he had gone through in the last month, maybe another little shock wouldn't be too bad.

FIN

* * *

_Thank you so much for reading and for reviewing! I definitely had fun writing this, even if it was something that I had never expected to happen. It also seems really appropriate that I got the last chapter out on the year anniversary. Funny how things like this work._

What's more funny (at least to me), is that this was originally going to be a one-shot, but as you can tell, it kinda developed a mind of it's own.  


_Although I don't want to get your hopes up too much, I am currently starting on a new DP project that I'm hoping to get up and running. It's definitely going to be a challenge to write, but I'm really excited for it. So, please be on the lookout._

_And, with that, I bid you a fond farewell! Until next time,_

_Ayamari no Goshi_


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